Nonna

Nonna means "grandmother" in Italian- This is a post about my Mother in Law who lives in a hillside village outside of Florence Italy.She is now 88 years old, and still living by herself (by her choice)

We have seen a decline in her mental state over the past few years, with a noteable decline within the last 6 months. So much so that Guido (my husband) had purchased a ticket to go to Italy in early November - with the plan to convince her that she needed to accept help in her living situation.

 This is a picture I took of Cosmo and his Nonna (grandmother) in December 2006.

Well, last Monday the world spun just a bit too fast and she took a bad step and broke her leg. Luckily, she was out walking in her village and she was brought to the hospital by ambulance. (we have been fearing a fall in her house- knowing that she wouldn't be "found" for a long time) She was operated on successfully on Wednesday, and is possibly getting out of the hospital today. 

The problem is- her mental state.She is quite confused about where she is- thinks that she is at home- and what is happening- she claims that I have been visiting her- While we know that some of this is due to the medication we have also begun accepting that she is experiencing some form of dementia.

It has become clear that we cannot bring her home again, for her own health and safety.

Guido is currently with her in Italy- he cashed in his vacation time and is staying for a month (if not more) his mission is to find her a safe and reliable living situation. We don't know what her reaction will be to not returning to her home, but because of it's layout it may not be possible for her to be there. SO- we have no choice but to put her in a nursing home in Italy- 

It's tearing us apart- we really wanted to bring her here -to the US- to be near us so we could oversee her care- BUT-----she isn't a US citizen, speaks very little English, and wouldn't have medical insurance. I guess sometimes circumstances make our choices for us, but this is a bitter pill to swallow.

I am hoping by writing this here that one of my brilliant readers could have information about how we could bring her here..I know it's a longshot, but we are just distraught about having to leave her somewhere without our supervision. Moving back to Italy is a very last resort possibility- it would mean that we both would lose our jobs (and I would lose my business that I have been intensely creating over the past few years) and our son would be uprooted from his school (though some time learning Italian would do him good)

thanks for reading this- If you have any suggestions I would like to hear them- until she is in a good situation we will be a divided family. I can handle it- but for our son, it stinks. I guess I should feel thankful that I at least know that My husband isn't at war- and that I don't have to worry about his safety on top of it all.

thanks once again- 

ciao ciao- Maureen

scam a lam a ding dong

so- it was a dark and stormy night....no, not really, it actually was yesterday
afternoon...

what has happened is that we discovered that we have a leak under our house  and
I called a plumber (from a big company). we live midtown and have an old home
with old pipes- we know that-

the plumber tells us that we need a complete re-pipe- which we have been
anticipating- and then he proceeds to tell us that they are now connected with a
restoration company that they would call for a free estimate- ok- we said, sure-
we need to make sure our home is not riddled with mold-

so they called the restoration co- (who showed up within 15 minutes!) and then
the restoration guy starts telling us that that we absolutely should not call
our insurance company until they got rid of any mold that may be there (like
they are going to doctor the site so that the insurance pays more or something
like that)-

At this point my husband and I are completely freaked- they have
dropped comments about spores possibly damaging our son's health...) And my
husband (sigh) signs their agreement saying that they can start working on
drying out the crawl space tomorrow....

they leave, then are back within 5 minutes with another crew of guys who come in
with this huge de-humidifier, stick it in our kitchen, and tell us they will be
back tomorrow at 8 am.

ok- so Guido and I are left thinking, HUH? this doesn't seem right....it sounds
like they are wanting us to lie to our insurance - isn't that FRAUD??? so, what
happens if we did (which we won't- we are really not that kind of people) what
happens is that the insurance adjuster comes out, sees that things have been
done- refuses the claim , then cancels our policy for fraud-
(and we go to jail for comitting fraud)

Yeah, NOT going to
happen. no way.

the restoration company is coming to our home this morning at 8 am and we
are going to tell them that we don't want their services- My fear is that they
will wave their contract and claim that we cannot get out of the agreement
without some major $ being put out-

But they don't know that I am blogger girl- and ready to open a can of
bloggers whup ass on them if things get ugly.
yup, I tweet, I blog, so don't mess with me!
excuse me , now I have to go and put on my blog girl superhero costume...

1 hour later...and we have dispatched the scum successfully ( or so it seems)
I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to do something else-
I'll keep you posted!